At Its Soul, Aspen Is Still a Throwback Mountain Town...If You Know Where to Look

14.10.2024 - 15:32 / cntraveler.com / Louis Vuitton / Aspen Snowmass

Winter weather in Western Colorado can be fickle—except on Aspen Highlands mountain, where every day at noon and two there's a 100 percent chance of Champagne showers. During my first (and only) visit to the famously hedonistic high-altitude Cloud Nine Alpine Bistro, it took mere minutes for the man next to me to climb up on his table, put on his Gucci goggles, pull off his shirt, and begin spraying Veuve Clicquot across the room, eliciting cheers and an impromptu dance party.

But visitors can do other kinds of hooting and hollering at Aspen Highlands, one of the four mountains that make up the Aspen Snowmass area (the others are Aspen, Buttermilk, and Snowmass), all skiable under a single lift pass. On a perfect bluebird morning in March, I rose early to join a group of powder seekers willing to boot-pack some 780-plus vertical feet to reach the top of Highland Bowl. It was a slow slog, but getting first tracks on some of Colorado's steepest runs in unfathomably floaty, fluffy snow was a powerful motivator. A chairlift draped in prayer flags marked the summit, and from there we dropped into the 270-acre expanse, whooping with sheer delight.

Alpin Room’s warm Bavarian pretzel

An après cocktail at Ajax Tavern

During the nearly 10 years I've lived in Colorado, I have visited Aspen a few times every winter. In recent seasons I've heard a lot of chatter about Aspen losing its soul. Of course, celebrities, beginning with the likes of Cary Grant and Lucille Ball, have been coming here since the 1950s. But lately the insider energy has felt more overwhelming than ever. Twenty nineteen saw the opening of the Snow Lodge, a restaurant and music venue from the team behind Montauk's sceney Surf Lodge, followed by the launch of AspenX, an exclusive on-mountain club and retail store that collaborated with Prada on après sweatshirts and sporty jackets. Lately rumors have been swirling that an Aman is on its way.

But if you look beyond the glitz, gluttony, and après pop-ups, Aspen remains appealingly nuanced. Ski bums share the slopes with billionaires. At the Western-themed J-Bar, the stools are occupied both by influencers and Stetson-topped ranchers. A Louis Vuitton boutique neighbors Ute Mountaineer, a family-run business that has rented out ski gear since the '70s. And at its heart, Aspen is still about unparalleled access to epic wilderness and world-class terrain.

“The idea that we're all fur coats and Cristal keeps the best parts of the mountains quiet,” said Ted Mahon, a local ski instructor, during an evening chat in the Buttermilk Mountain parking lot. “You can be part of that scene, or you can do the outdoors thing.” Mahon and I had come to do the outdoors thing. It was the season's final full moon dinner